Robin Rhode At The Rivoli&#039;s Castle, Museum of Contemporay Art by Grazia Berardinelli

On The 20th September, I Met The Young South African Artist Robin Rhode. It Happened At The Museum of Contempory Art At The Rivoli&#039;s Castle. After The Debate, and Away From The Usual Artistic Offers, The Public Had The Opportonity to Participat

On the 20th September, I met the young south African artist Robin Rhode. It happened at the museum of contemporary art at the Rivoli&#039;s Castle.
After the debate, and away from the usual artistic offers, the public had the opportunity to participate to a laboratory-performance: integrating the artist&#039;s given graphic elements, the audience had drawn and colorated the walls. Huge wax colour pencils available in a box, had favoured a collective action, a social commitment.The artist has realised important pieces in London, Minneapolis, Los Angeles, New York and participated to the Venise&#039;s Art Biennale in 2005. In 2009, he collaborated with the Norwegian pianist, Leif Ova Andsnes on the ”Picture Reframed” project, presented in all the best theatre in the world.
He is, without any question, an multidisciplinary artist: he is a performer, takes photos, draws on simple and available-to-all material, on walls or in 3D.
He is using everyday material, such as charcoal pencils, wax pencil and crayons, tempera painting. He chooses the city walls to stay closed to the street life, &quot;to be real&quot;. His paintings are in movement, they are taking further the dynamism of every day’s nature , particularly in the fantasy world as he pointed himself about the bike&#039;s picture: &quot; it is a proper and real trip in the fantasy, when I was small, nobody had it&quot;. It is then getting a magical value of proximity, exactly like the primitive and apotropaic representations.The characteristics of his drawings, in movements and sequences (the burning piano, the playing guitar...) remind me of the other south African artist William Kentridge whose works are in constant evolution, like translating an opera in a film. The sequences developed in his works are spinning a web of narrative plots where imaginative presences are interacting. They are different though in their life personality, with an European perception for Kentridge when Rhode is clearly influenced by his country, the south African cities where social issues mark out people&#039;s destiny. Bringing Robin Rhode to the Rivoli&#039;s Castle underlines the efficient wall drawing eduction method during workshops, at schools. The walls, as always, belong to everybody, they can thus be used as instruments of collective communication and keys for reading the history.
Givoletto, 21/9/2011 by Grazia BerardinelliExerpt:On the 20th September, I met the young south African artist Robin Rhode. It happened at the museum of contemporary art at the Rivoli&#039;s Castle.
After the debate, and away from the usual artistic offers, the public had the opportunity to participate to a laboratory-performance: integrating the artist&#039;s given graphic elements, the audience had drawn and colorated the walls. Huge wax colour pencils available in a box, had favoured a collective action, a social commitment.The artist has ..